Wednesday, 23 June 2010

In recent years i've become addicted to tinkering - every new unit has to include a few conversions. Inspiration often comes from illustrations, and the Company of Military Historians 'The Era of the American Revolution' title is a source i keep returning to.

You may remember i featured the Culpeper Minutemen some time ago, i'd thought i'd put them to bed as a small 18 figure battalion but hadn't reckoned on the generosity of 'Mr MWAN' himself - Hal Thinglum. Last year Hal sent me a box of Hinchliffe figures that contained a number of riflemen and i recently used those to boost the Culpeper battalion up to it's 1775 paper strength. More rank and file meant more command figures so i took the opportunity to create my own miniature version of the officer illustrated in the COMH book. I took a Hinchliffe militia casting, replaced the head and left arm, converted the voluminous waistcoat into a hunting shirt and added a few other details such as an officers sash and fringing to the legs. A lick of Humbrol Midnight Blue and i'm quite pleased with the result.

The new drummer boy is also a conversion - the Foremost British Napoleonic drummer getting the Miliput hunting shirt treatment.

Recently i was able to pop down to the WHC and Mike Ingham was good enough to let me poke around the shelves for a couple of hours. Having had a good gander at literally hundreds of Doug Mason creations (not to mention those fantastic and ingenious Gilder buildings and terrain features) i am now armed with a stock of great conversion ideas to pillage for my AWI armies.

Friday, 4 June 2010

Again these British rifles come to us courtesy of Mike Ingham. Somewhat dusty apparently they've been languishing in a cupboard for years. The officer and kneeling figures are current Hinchliffe, the standing firing chap is more of a mystery - Clive reckons he's a 'first edition' Hinchliffe, and he's probably right (similar style to his more modern colleagues, just smaller and thinner ....that's the figure, not Clive).

Incidentally i think the first time i heard of the WHC was via a small piece in a Sunday supplement (probably the Sunday Times) c. 1980 - i remember that article being illustrated with a rather atmospheric shot of a British rifleman. It's a shame i no longer have that cutting.

Wednesday, 2 June 2010

More vintage Hinchliffe from the WHC courtesy of Mike Ingham. Here i think we have early Hinchliffe cossacks (i've not seen this figure before, and it's not in the current catalogue) on current range ancient Hun ponies. Mike inherited these from Peter Gilder in 1988 and they are still in regular use at the WHC (which could make them veterans of over 35 years service).

Tuesday, 1 June 2010

Mike Ingham (owner of the Wargames Holiday Centre) was kind enough to send me these images recently. They form part of a substantial collection of vintage, original 'Gilder era', figures that Mike had unearthed.

These particular chaps are 'first edition' Hinchliffe British Napoleonic heavy dragoons - the trooper was remodelled (and significantly enlarged) in the late 1970s but the officer and trumpeter remain in the Hinchliffe catalogue to this very day.